The Dark Side of Consumerism

With the help of organizations like the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements, ISEC has been able to sponsor 50 “reality tourists.” Ladakhis stay with locals for as long as three months, visiting nursing homes, shopping malls, and garbage dumps, as well as local farms and solar energy installations. While they are astounded by the amount of stuff that is thrown away, Norberg-Hodge says the visitors are much more affected by people’s lack of free time, the social segregation of old and young, and the anonymity and lack of interaction with neighbors—even in densely populated apartment buildings. Some of their reactions are documented in Norberg-Hodges 2011 documentary, The Economics of Happiness.

“You’d be amazed—this way of life in the West is really not what we think,” Norberg-Hodge reported one woman saying upon returning to her village. “People live right on top of each other in a building and they dont even know each others names. When someone comes to stay they make such a fuss over things like bed linen.”